Back-to-lay Westerner Point and Lady Longshot
1.55 Thurles
Realt Mor was a surprise winner of a valuable handicap hurdle here at Thurles over 2m4f in January, where he beat another of today’s runners, Westerner Point 13 lengths in to fourth. Today they meet up over fences and there is good reason to think this is going to suit Westerner Point better than their last meeting over hurdles , even though he is much worse off at the weights.
He had won his previous 2 races prior to the outing over hurdles and looked to be improving in his handicap chases, having looked to be doing just enough when idling in the lead, dropping to third before rallying at the last to win by half a length. He traded as big as 310 in that race and had previously done similar at Sligo in 2015 where he traded to 170, when headed before the last after leading. He has traded below at least half his BSP in his last 6 race (winning 3 of them) and looks a great back-to-lay at 4.0, it could also be worth chancing a few quid in-running if he is headed after leading as he more than capable of getting back up.
2.35 Huntingdon
Lady Longshot is a strong travelling hold-up horse that makes-up ground easy from the rear to trade low in-running. She has yet to win in 6 races but had traded below at least half her BSP in-running in 5 of those races and down to less than 10% of her BSP in 3 of those races.
She made her handicap debut from novice hurdles last time out where she traded all the way down to 1.54 in-running from a BSP of 23. She raced off a handicap mark of 96, which she was competitive and races off 2lb less today so she should be thereabouts again racing off just 10-2 in this mares handicap hurdle. She looks a great back-to-lay at 8.0 and you may also get to top-up at bigger odds in-running if there is an overreaction to her hold-up tactics, especially as the two market leaders are out-and-out pace horses, that could take each other on for the lead.
